SHIP OF MEMORIES

After the disaster of the previous album Mother Focus, Akkerman, van Leer and company released this collection of outtakes and unreleased tracks. This is much better record that brings back some of the old FOCUS magic. It is particularly worthy to listen to the nice and playful flute-marked opener P's March and the dark and noisy rendition of fuzz and Mellotron filled Can't Believe My Eyes. There is also quite a few amazing jazz jamming moments in Out of Vesuvius and Crackers and interesting, rather dirty version of Hocus Pocus. The rest is not very much up to the standards of FOCUS and it is plain to see why these had been left over. Ship of Memories is not essential record, but it has a healthy dose of nice music that can mend (at least temporarily) the broken hearts of the fans who had already dismissed the band as passe after the previous failure.

PERSONAL RATING: 2,5/5

P.A. RATING: 3/5